The Fernie Ghostriders have applied to host the Keystone Cup next April. The Keystone Cup, for the unenlightened, is the Western Canadian Junior “B” Championship where teams from Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC compete to see who’s the best team in Western Canada. Thunder Bay hosted the tournament last April and the Cyclone Taylor winning Richmond Sockeyes of BC won the championship.A big part of hosting a tournament like the Keystone is having the available lodging and restaurants to accommodate all the players, 
coaches, scouts and parents. During the peak of the ski season this would be a problem in Fernie but late in April at the end of the season there would be lots of room in the hotels and all the restaurants etc. would still be geared up for the big crowds.
Here’s Rider President Phil Iddon answering some of those concerns. “The Fernie Ghostriders this week put in a presentation to host the Keystone Cup in the 2009-2010 hockey season. We believe we’ve put in a strong package, we have a great community that could host with several great hotels and restaurants available, and the newly renovated Fernie arena with it’s great dressing room facilities and new boards & glass that increase the playability of the ice surface would make the Fernie Memorial Arena an excellent place to host this tournament”. photo-Phil Iddon-
You can’t have a tournament if you can’t get to the venue.
Phil Iddon “As far as our geographical location for the other Provinces this is the best location due to the proximity of the other Provinces. For travel purposes this is a great place to come and play hockey, we’ve got the Cranbrook (international) airport close at hand and the Calgary airport is just a few hours away and both have the availability of easy access to bussing to and from the Fernie area, so geographically were are great location for the tournament.
Would this tournament help bring in some high end players?
Iddon on recruiting “This would be a great recruiting tool for the Fernie Ghostriders and should put us in a strong position to get the best players we possibly can with the opportunity of hosting the Western Canadians. It’s a great carrot to have out there when trying to recruit players over and above other programs. The other carrot here in Fernie is the strength of our program as it stands. We have great fan support averaging 700 fans a game and several of our players over the years including three players from last years team have furthered their hockey careers in school after graduating from our program.”
Fernie is not the only team to have applied to host the tournament, we hear Nelson, Golden and Kamloops are also in the mix but there could be more teams. The winning bid should be announced in the next few weeks, so keep your fingers crossed Fernie fans.
